/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/7c/14/7c14733c-f2ca-48c6-b882-5261baec394b/team.jpg)
Posted on 10/28/2026 7:12:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin
When the divers ducked beneath the surface, they knew their target: a mysterious iron cauldron at the bottom of England’s River Wear. They had no idea how the vessel had ended up there, though they were fairly certain it had been underwater for hundreds of years. Their mission was to recover it from the watery darkness and bring it back to the surface.
After freeing the artifact from debris, the divers secured it in thick green netting inside a metal cage. Team members on a recovery craft above then slowly pulled it up into the late morning sun. It arrived back on land for the first time in centuries—but just how much time had passed?
Researchers have a few loose theories. The three-legged cauldron was found alongside a trove of ancient Roman artifacts, but its design isn’t consistent with the Roman era. Experts’ best guess is that it’s medieval. Their second-best guess is that it dates to the Iron Age.
The Wear is located near the city of Sunderland in northern England. In recent years, volunteers investigating the riverbank have discovered roughly 800 Roman whetstones, which soldiers used to sharpen swords and other tools in antiquity, as well as coins and stone anchors.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
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Would make a suitable prompt for a production of Macbeth.
Maybe it’s a chamber pot.
Watch the mudlarkers on youtube , they find jewels ,LOL
“Their second-best guess is that it dates to the Iron Age.”
Nothing gets past these researchers...
* Nothing gets past these researchers...*
Thank you for giving me a good laugh…..!
“Their second-best guess is that it dates to the Iron Age.”
Really?...............
Sure looks like a ‘poop pot’.
The solidified sludge cooked on to the bottom is complex. They’ve only been able to divine that surviving DNA includes blood from a non-human primate, like from the genus Papio, and some variety of salamander or newt.
Thanks for the link!
roman era mining near sunderland england
https://search.brave.com/search?q=roman+era+mining+near+sunderland+england
“...While metal mining (lead, iron, gold) was prominent in other parts of Roman Britain, this Sunderland discovery highlights a specialized non-metallic extraction industry focused on military equipment maintenance.”
🙂😊😁😀😃😆😅😂🤣
Just in time for a witch’s cauldron to celebrate Halloween.
They’ve got it ranked like this:
Medieval
Iron Age
Roman
I’ll go out on a limb and rank the possibilities this way:
Roman
Medieval
Iron Age
Ben....associated with witches and occult arts and disposed of in the river? the Halloween explanation.
Used in food prep for a fort or village or a monastery? Could be a non repairable crack or hole in the bottom and rather than recycling the iron some dunderhead kitchen drudge pitched in in the river. Perhaps it suffered the same fate as a lot of Freeper Armament....an overloaded boat transporting it tipped over and it, like all those long guns, it sank, lost in the murk and the dark waters below!
Or, to deny its use for food preparation to the rebellious locals or to the local defending army, it was pitched in the river by some invading force already loaded with plunder and unable to cart it back to (then) Scotland, or to the longships and back to Norway, or maybe to the south by William the Conqueror's marauding armies.
Maybe it was from a stage production of Macbeth..............
Probably dates back to the Middle Ages and the persecution of witches.
“I’m telling you, I lost all of my cauldrons in the river!”
My stuff doesn’t hide, though there are times I’m convinced someone stole it before I actually find it.
I have a couple of suggestions to explain its watery grave:
“Hon, what should we do with this old cauldron?” - “Just throw it in the river dear.”
“Hey, don’t put the heavy stuff on the edge of the boat. It’s more likely to...o crap”
But there were no people of color on the dive team!!
/s
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